


Odd

by GrumpyJenn



Series: From Behind the Sofa [5]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-11
Updated: 2012-04-11
Packaged: 2017-11-03 10:52:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/380598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyJenn/pseuds/GrumpyJenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Well, they were a bit odd...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Odd

Odd, the Ood. They were so _odd_.

Not perhaps odder than humans. He’d always loved humans, they were so _human_. So fragile, but _brilliant_ , humans, and he thought he’d never be done saving them.

But the Ood... so _odd_ , the Ood. “They were so odd, River,” he said, as she held his head in her lap and stroked his hair. “They were a slave race, but they _knew_ things. They were _wise_ , and they knew things. Things even the Time Lords didn’t, and... they were just so _odd_.” She smiled at him. He wasn’t usually quite this much at a loss for words, so the Ood must have been _very_ odd. “It’s funny,” he said musingly, “They looked like something out of early 20th century human cosmic horror fiction, but they were really quite harmless when left to their own devices. They were easily... subverted, though, maybe it’s the collective intelligence, so what affects one affects all of them... unless they’re cut off somehow.”

River thought he looked sad; he must be thinking of some cut-off Ood from the times she didn’t know him. She’d certainly never seen one, and that was odd in itself, because she had a lot of archaeological experience of the times when the Ood had been enslaved by humans. Maybe they were even odder than the Doctor thought, maybe they controlled the archaeological record of their own history somehow. “Did you know many of them, Sweetie?” she asked, “aside from the hive-mind know-me-know-my-kind bit?”

The Doctor smiled up at her, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Just a few, personally,  but the one who made me think of separation from the collective mind was called Nephew... and he lived on House.” His youthful face grew grim. “We had to kill him, Sexy and me, or we’d never have gotten out of that bubble space.” River shuddered; he’d told her about that, and if they hadn’t gotten out, well... it didn’t bear thinking about. So she made a deliberate attempt to change the mood to a lighter one and made a naughty remark about what one could do with all those tentacles.

The Doctor looked relieved, and reached up to bury his hands in her hair and bring her face down to his. And then he proved to her that really, she’d rather have a lantern-jawed Time Lord with a proper humanoid mouth than an Ood any day.

**Author's Note:**

> Written after watching The Impossible Planet with 9yo Abby


End file.
